Most Americans today more or less believe that life as we know it now is as it always has been. The photographs reflect rural America at the height of the impact of the great depression. I remember visiting my maternal grandmother on her family farm in the mid 1950s. There was no electricity, no running water, and every family had an outhouse. At night they used candles or kerosene lamps to see. They had no air conditioning and used a fireplace to heat the home in the winder. They cooked over a wood burning stove. When you consider the standard of living in the USA today, remember we have never had an Idi Amin.